Nottingham-based Upperton Pharma Solutions (www.upperton.com), a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) has invested £500,000 in significantly expanding its tablet manufacturing capability with the addition of tablet processing equipment for wet granulation, roller compaction, tablet compression, hardness testing, dedusting, weight sorting and tablet coating. It will enhance the company’s development and manufacturing capability while also strengthening its ability to support clients’ R&D and clinical manufacturing needs.

Upperton is now well placed to offer its clients scientific expertise combined with a wide range of scalable equipment to enable the development and manufacture of tablets. The investment in the downstream tablet processing capability compliments Upperton’s already globally recognised expertise and capability in spray drying as an enabling technology for improving solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs.

Paul Kelsall, director of clinical manufacture said: “This suite of equipment has considerably expanded Upperton’s capabilities and scale with respect to tablets. It has enabled us to recently onboard a number of new tablet dosage form projects and provides us with enhanced capabilities to offer our clients a wide range of tablet processing options. We now have the tools to offer tablet as a dosage form to support client projects from early material characterisation, design of experiments concepts, first in human studies through to phase II clinical manufacture and technical transfer support.”

Upperton Pharma Solutions develops and produces oral and inhalation drug products for clinical trials and is able to optimise formulation performance through a science-led approach to projects.

Dr Richard Johnson, Founder and CEO said: “This significant package of investment signals our commitment to continued growth and expansion of our Services in order to meet the growing demands of our clients in oral solid dosage form development. It complements Upperton’s already established world class reputation for the use of spray drying as the principle enabling technology for poorly soluble compounds and ensures that we can support our client through the entire development process from early R&D to clinical supply.”

The CDMO’s GMP clinical manufacturing capabilities are based at its site in Nottingham and are supported by its materials characterisation, analytical and IP consultancy services.